KURTENBACH: Never ending war? Or Peace?

[Oscar]

KURTENBACH: Never ending war? Or Peace?

November 15, 2014

To the Editor,

As a young farm boy, I dreamed that some day most of the human beings on planet Earth would be civilized, where we all could live in peace.

Barring a miracle, [I have passed my 95th] it certainly appears this just "ain't gonna happen", at least for those of my age.

As we listen and watch the daily news in horror and dismay, informing us of countries or organized groups that are bombing, shelling and trying to kill each other in foreign lands, we wonder where and why it all started and where will it all end - - if ever.

And why is Canada now involved in sending planes to bomb something or somebody in Iraq?

The warmongering in the Middle East appears to be a horribly messy and complex situation. [ At least that is the way it looks to me.]

Innocent men, women and children are being killed, wounded and driven from their homes. All this is happening thousands of miles from the shores of North America, and we Canadians are now again part of that invasion.

Recently, the heinous murder of two Canadian soldiers perpetrated by two stupid, mixed up, drug-induced individuals received national attention. Canadians are now told that we are supposed to fear an influx of Islamist "terrorists".

At the same time, very little national publicity is given to the fact that the cities of Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg rank the highest in Canada regarding criminal activity.

Since 1980, Syria has become the fourteenth country which the U.S. and some of its allies have either bombed, invaded or occupied other countries. On March of 2011, armed rebel forces in Syria attempted to displace the President of Syria, Bashar al Assad. On second thought President Obama wisely decided not to invade Syria. But apparently has supported the rebels and mercenary "freedom fighters" which are comprised mostly of Al Nursah and ISIS brigades, the latter having acquired American weapons left behind when the U.S. military pulled their troops out of Iraq.

It is interesting to note that President Obama is the fourth American president to involve the U.S. in bombing Iraq. It is reported that the ISIS military have massacred anyone who does not support them.

The U.S. has decided that it must now bomb ISIS military advances in Iraq. Canada has followed.

Saudi Arabia [which has an abominable human rights record and beheads criminals], supports the bombing of ISIS, as does Israel, whose political leaders in recent years were responsible for the massacre, wounding and property damage of thousands of Palestinian citizens in Gaza. Our Prime Minister Harper has assured the Israeli Knesset that Canada would support Israel without question!

Canada's Department of Defence has become a Department of Offence.

Why do we kill people, who are killing people, to show that killing people is wrong?

If Canada wishes to be recognized as a nation of peacekeepers, our politicians need to have the courage to establish a Department of Peace, with sufficient funding to work with other countries or organizations who no longer wish to go to war to make peace.

However, that will happen only when the majority of Canadians vote for politicians who believe that peace is a moral and worthwhile endeavour.

Leo Kurtenbach
Saskatoon, SK
Phone: 306.652.5129